20/20: Vision for the Future

Norine Howardson, City of Thunder Bay Family Physician Recruiter, accepting the CASPR Recruiter Recognition Award on behalf of Patricia Lee. From left to right, Norine Howardson, Laurie Nash (CASPR Chair), David Kay (CASPR Member at Large), John Jamieson (Scotiabank, Diamond Sponsor)

Collingwood, Ontario, Canada: The Canadian Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (CASPR) attracted more than 85 physician recruitment professionals from across the country to its 7th annual conference held recently in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. “CASPR is the national organization representing a unique group of professionals from right across Canada. We are pleased to be able to offer our membership the opportunity for the continued professional development that takes place each year at this conference,” said Laurie Nash, Chair of CASPR.

CASPR held its first Annual Awards ceremony during the conference. Patricia Lee, Director of Medical and Academic Affairs at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, was the first recruitment professional to receive the CASPR Recruiter Recognition Award. The CASPR Recruiter Recognition Award recognizes a CASPR member who has been selected by his or her peers as an icon who has developed innovative and collaborative approaches and solutions resulting in successful physician attraction and retention in his or her community.

Ms. Lee was a founding member of the Thunder Bay Physician Recruitment and Retention Council (TBPRRC), the TBPRRC Marketing Committee, and the City of Thunder Bay Health Care Professionals Recruitment & Retention Steering Committee. A visionary, she built the Thunder Bay physician recruitment program from the ground up. With the new Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), she is now heavily involved in academics and administration.

Mary Jane Yorke, Physician Recruiter for Sault Ste. Marie, was the recipient of the inaugural CASPR Hall of Fame Award. The Hall of Fame Award recognizes a CASPR member who has demonstrated significant contributions to his or her local physician recruitment program. The recipient must also have demonstrated significant contributions to the growth and success of CASPR as an association. The recipient’s entrepreneurial record must demonstrate the following core values: business excellence, vision and innovation, inspiring leadership, and an honourable legacy.

Ms. Yorke began her nursing career in 1986, officially started physician recruitment in 2003, and recruited an astounding 68 physicians to Sault Ste. Marie. A tireless and dedicated individual, she, last year alone, logged approximately 21,000 kilometres, worked 34 weekends, and 2 statutory holidays. She has been an active member of CASPR since the very beginning (2004). Mary-Jane has announced her retirement and she will be sorely missed in the recruitment community.

“This year’s CASPR award recipients are two good examples of the exceptional types of individuals that represent their communities, clinics and hospitals to potential physician recruitment candidates. Physician recruitment and retention, is tremendously competitive in nature. CASPR wants to celebrate and recognize the commitment and professionalism of its members,” said Nash.

Another highlight of the event was the launch of CASPR’s new website! We have a fresh updated look on our new site, www.caspr.ca. We will be using our website as a library for all of our documentation and materials. We will add a “history” page to track our organization’s growth and progress. We have the capability now to add photos and videos. We have some returning favourites to the site such as “email all members” which gets used on a regular basis. Since our membership has grown so much it will be great to have the capability to add photos to our profile so we can be reminded who we are connecting with since we don’t see each other that often. We still have the capability to post physician jobs and to share resources with each other and network. As usual our conference materials are highly sought after.

Hon. Carolyn Bennett, MD, MP, presenting “Is There a Doctor in the House?”

CASPR also held its Annual General Meeting during the conference. Laurie Nash (Chatham, Ontario) stepped down as Chair to become the Past Chair and welcomed Joan Mavrinac (Windsor, Ontario) as the new Chair. Bryan MacLean (Calgary, Alberta) was successfully elected as Vice Chair. Ginette Vezina stepped down as Communications Chair. After founding CASPR Communications in 2004, Ginette Vezina (Sudbury, Ontario) assumed the role of Communications Chair (she led the communications portfolio for a remarkable 7 years!). Ginette’s contributions to this portfolio directly relates to CASPR’s success. She will be missed. Amanda English (Ajax, Ontario) has now assumed the role of Communications. Joan Hatcher (St. Catharine’s, Ontario) and Chuck Schmitt (Dryden, Ontario) join the Board as Members at Large. Jill Cappa (Grimsby, Ontario) returns as Secretary. Joanne Ferraccioli (Port Colborne, Ontario) and Alice Preston (Brantford, Ontario) are Conference Co-Chairs and will begin planning next year’s conference in Ottawa, Ontario. Susan Adair (Toronto, Ontario) remains the Treasurer.

We would also like to thank all of our sponsors, including our Diamond Sponsor: Scotiabank. Without the support of these organizations, we couldn’t have had such a successful conference.

The Canadian Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (CASPR) is a professional organization from across Canada whose members’ primary role is to recruit physicians for their communities, local hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Membership is open to non-profit physician recruitment professionals employed or retained by hospitals, hospital corporations, clinics, health care regions or authorities, public sector, government agencies or communities to recruit and retain physicians for that entity. CASPR’s membership has been increasing with each passing year and currently has approximately 150 recruitment professionals. CASPR offers a means for Canadian physician recruitment professionals from coast to coast to share best practices, techniques and tools for physician recruitment and retention.

MRRN Update

Sparkling eyes glistened on many faces as exhibitors and MRRN members danced through the marble encapsulated atrium; staring at the alluring wonder of Lake Michigan’s sunset. Romance…maybe; the love of physician recruitment excellence…most certainly.

The Michigan Recruitment and Retention Network held its 17th annual conference on May 1-3 at The Inn at Bay Harbor in Petoskey, Michigan. Forty-two loyal MRRN members attended the 17th annual event to renew, rejuvenate and refocus for a new era of recruitment and retention.

The Michigan Recruitment and Retention Network extends thanks to all of our exhibitors and a special thank you to our Gold Sponsors, Goldfish Partners and Medical Opportunities of Michigan; our Silver Sponsors, Medical Staff Strategies and Leapdoctor.com; and our Bronze Sponsors, The Medicus Firm, PracticeMatch, and our multiple Bronze Sponsor PracticeLink.

MRRN welcomed Allison McCarthy, Principal, Barlow/McCarthy who presented “Managing Internal Stakeholders through physician recruitment.” Dana Lewis, an Interactive Marketing Specialist at Swedish in Seattle, presented on Social Media and the power it can supply to physician recruitment. Jill Stratton, a consultant for the Corporate Health Group, presented on physician sales and service management. Barb Hilborn, Manager of Physician Recruitment at Sparrow Health System, moderated a panel discussion that focused on “Demonstrating Value to Your Organization.”

The educational value resulted in several key takeaways from MRRN’s 17th annual recruitment and retention conference. It is imperative that in-house physician recruitment professionals know what it takes to be effective! Michigan recruiters need to devise solid recruiting infrastructure to successfully manage the recruiting aspects that encompass internal stakeholder buy-in and support for the overall recruitment effort by educating stakeholders on search data. Recruitment professionals also need to balance market realities with organizational needs and desires.

The desire and market demand for social media is a current reality for most, if not all, physician recruitment professionals. Facebook has 550 million active users. Twitter has 106 million users and adds 300,000 each day. LinkedIn has 80 million current users and people are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube. It is obvious that social media offer physician recruitment professionals an atmosphere of “Social Recruiting” with endless capabilities. The best way to utilize social media is to effectively build communities and utilize relationships to create your brand, identify the networks used by your targeted audience and last but certainly not least…get involved.

It is widely recognized that physician recruitment professionals and physician liaisons must dynamically understand the acceleration of innovation to continually adjust their recruitment strategies to effectively enhance the sales cycle of physician relationship management. Physician recruitment is somewhat transactional-based but is by far relationship-based. Recruitment is not about what you have, it’s about what they need. A key aspect of recruitment and retention is finding a physician’s personal WIIFM (what’s in it for me), which will lead you to effective questioning. Effective questioning lends itself to measuring physician buy-in, managing recruitment barriers and gaining commitment.

Commitment to growth, commitment to membership and commitment to achieving excellence has glistened in the sparkling eyes of the Michigan Recruitment and Retention Network’s annual conference for 17 strong years. May the alluring wonders of pure Michigan entice us for many years to come.

Southwest Physician Recruiters Association Plans First Fly-In

Make plans to attend the first SWPRA Educational Meeting Friday, September 23, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Citizen Hotel in downtown Sacramento, CA. A fun social event is being planned for Thursday evening, September 22, for those who are able to participate. The registration fee is $100 for members and $150 for non-members. Meeting presenters who have been confirmed to date include; Scott Manning, ASPR President; Brett Walker, ASPR Past President; and Dennis Burns, Co-Chair of the ASPR Regional and Chapter Relations Committee. For more information, visit aspr.org or contact SWPRA President, Angela Jamison, jamisoa@sutterhealth.org

Upstate New York Physician Recruiters Hold Meeting Via Webinar

Upstate New York Physician Recruiters (UNYPR) is actively collaborating and working towards becoming the recognized resource for “all things physician recruitment” in New York State. The group now represents 27 healthcare organizations that include 35 hospitals and healthcare centers across upstate New York. The group has held two membership meetings this year.

Typically, driving conditions in upstate New York leave a lot to be desired in late winter and early spring. Meeting attendance is often limited during the snowy season. This past April, UNYPR entered some uncharted waters, addressing this issue by sponsoring its first-ever webinar membership meeting and educational presentation. Our own Gina Truhe of Health Quest Healthcare System provided an outstanding educational session including tips and forms for onboarding programs. Feedback regarding the use of webinar technology was great and UNYPR will now be scheduling all winter meetings via webinar.

The group met on June 9 in Utica and heard an excellent presentation, “The ABCs of Social Media for Physician Recruiters,” offered by Leslie Trosset, founder and president of BizTechLink. Look for more of our member organizations soon on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn! For more information, visit the UNYPR website at www.nyphysiciancareers.org

Wisconsin Staff Physician Recruiters Spring Meeting Recap

The Wisconsin Staff Physician Recruiters (WSPR) held its spring meeting on April 28, 2011 at Divine Savior Healthcare in Portage, WI. The meeting started with a light breakfast and welcome and introductions from Becky Trujillo, President. The meeting continued with a panel of physician recruitment professionals that included Randy Munson, WI Office of Rural Health; Deb Modder, Aurora Health Care; and Scott Lindblom, Dean Health System. The panel was asked a series of questions pertaining to the processes and protocols they use for successful recruitment and onboarding of new hires.

Additional speakers included Leslie Hanson, Manager of Physician Services, at Essentia Health in Duluth, MN on Management of the Locum Tenens Process; Traici Brockman, Primary Care Analyst, WI Division of Public Health on the National Health Service Corps program and requirements; and Gene Schaefer, Godfrey & Kahn Law Firm, on the eligibility and requirements of organizations hiring physicians with H1B visas.

Randy Munson, WI Office of Rural Health, concluded the meeting with a presentation on the results of a recruitment survey he conducted with 10 family medicine residency programs throughout Wisconsin on the resources they use most often to find practice opportunities.

Our fall meeting will be held on October 20, 2011 at Aspirus in Wausau, WI.